Olga Bakhtina is a Queensland-based artist working in oil and charcoal. She studied painting 15 years ago in the Sultanate of Oman while living there with her family for 4 years. Currently, she studies the history of art at the University of Queensland. Olga has a passion for Early Renaissance art, in which she finds serenity and inspiration.
Since her first solo exhibition in 2012 in Oman, Olga has been exhibiting regularly across Australia. Her recent solo exhibition, ‘Good Samaritan and other Biblical Stories’, showed in St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane, in July 2023. Olga has been the finalist and winner of a number of Australian Art awards, including the COSSAG (Cathedral of Saint Stephen Art Group) Award in 2016 and 2018.
Olga’s artworks are in the collections of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, the Australian Catholic University, Rosebank College, and St Anselm Abbey, New Hampshire, USA. Her work also hangs in various private international collections.
Olga’s work has been published in various publications worldwide, most recently in The Double: Identity and Difference in Art since 1900 (National Gallery of Art, 2022).
In 2022, the Archdiocese of Brisbane created a video series titled Art Aficionados, in which Olga’s Good Samaritan painting featured:
Olga writes:
I’m often asked why I paint Bible scenes. There are several reasons, but the most important one is that my paintings are not just about the Bible. They are about humanity and what comes with it – the beautiful things in life, like love, unexpected kindness, devotion, and sacrifice. But humanity also brings pain and tragedy – betrayal, greed, cruelty, and war. Has anything really changed since the Bible was written?
Nowadays it seems that the world is collapsing back to biblical times, as if there is a crack in civilisation. On one hand, there is humanism and advanced technologies, which Joshua, who stopped the sun in the Old Testament, did not dream of. On the other hand, there remains a lot of hate and barbarism, which sadly we continue to see around the world way too frequently. Sometimes, it feels like we’re flipping through the Bible and checking it with our reality.
I think we can all relate to the biblical stories and lessons, in one way or another. The Bible has lots of answers. My biblical paintings are my attempts to find them, to process what is happening in the world, and in my own life. They are my prayers, too. Someone said that art is the highest form of hope.
Olga is having an exhibition as a part of the 150th Anniversary celebration programme of the Cathedral of St Stephen, in Brisbane. The exhibition opens this Friday evening. RSVP to cathedral@bne.catholic.net.au or (07) 3324 3030.
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Art/s and Theology Australia 